Kristers Gudlevskis allowed 2 goals on 26 shots for the victory. One silver lining of the spanking the Crunch took against the Senators was that Gudlevskis got some quality PT in garbage time, and he carried that momentum over to tonight.

The other silver lining of the debacle against Bingo is the Crunch had time to collect themselves and get some continuity going with the skeleton lineup in the final 40 minutes of the game, and that also carried over into tonight's game.

Ex-Lightning 7th rounder Justin Courtnall had a goal against the organization that drafted him. Wow, that was a name from the past I wasn't sure I'd ever hear again.

Andrei Vasilevskiy allowed 5 goals on 19 shots for the loss before giving way to Kristers Gudlevskis, who stopped all 21 he faced the rest of the way. Syracuse's defense, losing Witkowski and Nesterov to the big club, was... poor tonight.

This thing was shaping up to be a train wreck all week, as the Crunch scrambled to find warm bodies to put in the lineup. And, in the end, it didn't disappoint. The team was outshot 40-18 and the Sens jumped all over them in the First Period. Such is life in the AHL sometimes.

While Dylan Blujus broke through for his first goal last week, his real strides have come in his own zone.

With an increase in ice time due to injuries and call-ups, the defenseman has started to find his groove with the Syracuse Crunch. Head coach Rob Zettler has seen steady progress in Blujus' game since he made his professional debut nearly three months ago.

"I would say over the last month, (Blujus) has been a much better defenseman, meaning he's going back for pucks more confidently and he's not as prone to get rid of pucks as quickly," Zettler said of the Buffalo native. "The beginning of the year, he'd get back and rim it around the boards and it would [cause] a cluster in our end for a little while because of it. He's just being a little bit more patient with the puck and smarter with the puck."

Less than an hour after receiving his award for AHL Goalie of the Month, Andrei Vasilevskiy was making his first relief appearance for the Syracuse Crunch.

Trailing by one heading into the second period, Syracuse turned to the Russian netminder to close the door. The Crunch took the lead in the second, held the Penguins to four shots on goal in the third, and Vasilevskiy finished with 10 saves in Syracuse's 4-3 win over Wilkes-Barre/Scranton at the Onondaga County War Memorial Saturday.

"He came out in the second period and made two or three unreal saves to start the period," said Crunch head coach Rob Zettler. "Then we slowly felt good about our game again and slowly took over."

Kristers Gudlevskis allowed 2 goals on 9 shots. They were soft enough that he was lifted at the First Intermission for Andrei Vasilevskiy, who allowed 1 goal on 11 shots the rest of the way to eventually collect the come-from-behind win.

The night also saw the return of Philippe Paradis from injury. Paradis has been a key missing cog from the Gourde line that has sputtered in his absence. Henri Ikonen also potted a goal for the second game in a row.

At this moment, Syracuse's 51 points has them 1 point off the pace for both the division and the conference lead.

The Syracuse defenseman, one of the last players cut from Tampa Bay Lightning training camp who earned a short call-up in October but didn't play, isn't worried about when he will have the opportunity to make his NHL debut. Even with the Lightning's blueline being banged up, Witkowski is focused on his game and doing what he can to help the Crunch.

"I'm not really worried about that right now," Witkowski said of the possibility of a promotion.

Syracuse head coach Rob Zettler has seen progress in Witkowski's second professional season.

Andrei Vasilevskiy allowed 1 goal on 36 shots before stopping 10 of 10 shooters in the penalty shot session for the SO victory. His save percentage rises to .923 and I don't know how he wasn't named all three of the game's stars after helping his team to overcome a 36-26 shot deficit.

Kristers Gudlevskis allowed 3 goals on 27 shots for the loss. The number looks ugly, but I can't be mad about any of the three goals. The first was a clean faceoff loss and a seeing eye point shot through a ton of traffic. Second goal was a breakaway after an awful Gourde turnover where Kristers got the first shot but got beat on the rebound. Third goal was a 2-on-1 where Blujus failed to block the pass across and Blunden couldn't catch up to the goal scorer.

Syracuse was 0-for-8 on the power play. Unlike Tampa Bay, though, which has plenty of finishers, I think the Crunch suffer from having only 1 or 2 pure finishers like Marchessault. As a consequence, they should be playing more of a shot/rebound style of basic PP, but that's not what they seemed interested in doing today.